We recently received a media alert about a fashion event we really hated to miss. (Alas, all of the Birmingham Fashion Blog team have day jobs.)
The event was a makeover, compliments of retail giant Belk. The makeover was granted to a Miss Lauren Banks in honor of her service to the youth of Birmingham and to celebrate and welcome delegates (of whom Miss Banks is one) to the Charlotte's Democratic National Convention of 2012.
We've been to Belk events before, so it didn't surprise us that Belk was being so welcoming to visitors of the Queen City. Its' the Southern way. But can we just say we were awed by the fact that Arlene Goldstein, Belk's Vice President of Trend Merchandising and Fashion Direction, came all the way from Charlotte today to personally style Miss Banks?
We've meet this fashion queen several years ago when she was the Fashion It Girl at Parisian and later Vice President of Trend Merchandising for Saks, although we don't know her personally. And it's our humble opinion, (as a fashion observer for over 30 years in Birmingham,) that Goldstein deserves much of the credit for turning Parisian into the fashion power-house that it was. And Belk's fashion direction since entering the Birmingham market? Nothing less than stellar.
And yet, Parisian always retained that accessibility to "the everyman" shopper. Hmm, something that I've noticed Belk does quite well also, now that I've had a chance to get acquainted with them.
Kudos to Belk for doing something so very nice for someone so deserving. And a bow to the fashion queen, who came all the way to Birmingham just to be of service to someone else.
I worked at Parisian in the '80's and I can vouch for the fact that Arlene has always been just as kind as she is pretty. And even though she moved higher up the ladder than most of us even dream about, every time our paths crossed she was the same humble and genuinely kind person she always was.
ReplyDeleteBirmingham misses you Arlene.